"Hold him- I said- Riley!"
It was a struggle that had been half an hour in the making. Soapy water sloshed out of the tub as the pup thrashed around and howled like they'd tied a firecracker to his tail or something. For a dog that didn't have any problems learning to get strapped into a little kevlar vest and have hunting rifles shot past his ears, Riley sure hated water.
They knew all this fuss was no good for the dog, either; he couldn't be an attacker if he was afraid of getting wet, and this should have been just the time to break him of it, but it wasn't going so well. They planned to introduce him to the water slowly... give him some time to get used to the idea and stop being so terrified of it... but during today's training session he'd escaped and found a dead bird to roll around in. He stank, and the second they'd brought him back in the house dad was yelling at them to go hose him off.
That wouldn't have been a such a problem either- if the dog had let them get anywhere near him with the hose. The six-month old German shepherd had taken one look at the tumbling arc of cold water coming off the end and had shot straight under the porch and stayed there, whining, until Hesh had to crawl under on his belly and pull him out. Logan had the bright idea of taking him back into the house and trying the tub, since there was less chance of him escaping from the bathroom, but they didn't realize that some time between the day they got him and the time they finally managed to drag him into the bathroom he'd learned to open the knob on the door. He got out twice more before they locked it at last and were able to concentrate on getting him into the tub. Finally, Logan had stripped down to his underwear and gotten into the tub with him, just so he could hold Riley's collar and pin him down long enough so he'd calm down and stop shaking and trying to throw himself at the door.
Hesh guessed they hadn't quite waited long enough to turn on the faucet, because the second they did Riley started struggling again, and Logan had gone ass-over-heels backwards and nearly cracked his skull on the tile wall. Hesh caught the dog though, and managed to keep him in while his younger brother got back up and got his arms around him good and tight. Before long the tub was full enough to try pouring water on him, which they soon learned he didn't like much either, so they had to settle for pouring it over Logan and Riley, while the former tried to pat his head and keep him calm and the latter whined desperately and skidded his claws around on the tub in a shaky attempt to get out. So, here they were: both of them soaked, one of them trying to get soap onto a wriggling Riley while the other tried to keep him from slipping out of his arms and vaulting out of the tub. It was hard to tell who had the better deal, Logan's clothes weren't sopping and he wasn't getting hit in the face with the dog's tail, but then Hesh hadn't been clawed half a dozen times in Riley's frantic attempts to jump and he wasn't half-naked.
"Can you move your-?" Also, trying to get his hand in between his brother's midsection and the dog's back to apply shampoo was getting kind of awkard.
"Not if you don't want him getting out!" Logan wasn't having much fun with this either, using his entire body to keep Riley still wasn't easy- he was still a pup, but at six months old he weighed almost sixty pounds already. Hesh still didn't have any clue how they were going to rinse him off.
Really, he felt like this was entirely his fault. He should have worked with Riley earlier to get over this, introduced him to baths when he was smaller, or ...something. But the truth was that his dog had never liked water, and it was going to be a lot of work habituating him.
"Okay... my fault. After this, we'll do baths weekly. Eh, boy? Until you're not so scared, huh?" All he got in response was a low whimper and flattened ears. Poor dog.
Logan immediately looked unimpressed. Without moving his arms he looked up and shot a glare at Hesh muttering, "What do you mean iwe/i."
"Hey, Riley's your responsibility too. We want him to work for us, we have to both make sure he trusts us. You know what dad said." And just then, those words gave Hesh an idea. He got up from his knees, started pulling off his dripping shirt and wet pants, and nodded at his brother. "Move over." To Logan's credit, he did as he was told this time without argument.
For the life of him, Hesh didn't know why it hadn't been more obvious to begin with; as soon as he lowered himself into the tub and sat boxing Riley in from the front he could see the dog start to calm down. Once he was fully in, with his and Logan's arms and legs locked and the dog in between them with nowhere to go, Riley sank his haunches into the water at last and sat. Eventually his whines ceased. Logan understood exactly what Hesh was trying to do- they all just sat there silently until they felt the tension go out of the body between them and Riley raised his head up to give Hesh's face a tentative lick.
"Good boy, Riley." They'd stay there until they got him clean. Dad always said they were stronger together.
Hesh was finally starting to understand what he meant.